Rekindled Will
by Lord Mendasuit
Summary: A moment of absolute terror is all that is needed to make one absolutely aware of the one ultimate truth of life. The certainty of death is perhaps the one thing that can make one understand the value of life and the weight of the future. It was not too late for an old shinobi to finally understand his teacher's last lesson.


Sarutobi Hiruzen was a busy man. There was no better example of his diligence and his workload than his form hunched over his desk, carefully going over each and every paper that came to his desk. Unmistakable was the clone sitting on the other side of his desk, carefully pouring over yet another paper.

At times, a careful eye would have seen an instant long glance. One of them would reach for a seal set in the middle of the desk, stamp it against the paper he was holding and then pass it along to the other one. This process would then repeat, over and over, as the Hokage kept rejecting the attempts at encroachment made by the many power-hungry clan heads.

At times like these, he doubted his decision to return to the seat he currently held. But ultimately, he always came to the realization that there was no one else who would be able to perform the job, at the very least, not as well as he did.

Pressure and tension was not helping, either, given the current state of Konohagakure No Sato, the Village hidden amidst the Leaves. Indeed, the Leaf was facing a hard time, recovering from the impressive damage dealt to it by the greatest beast in the land.

It was considerably less than it could have been, for if the beast's attacks had struck Konoha in full, it would most likely have reduced the majority of it to rubble. Still, many had died and significant damage had been dealt nonetheless, from the powerful tails stray movements.

"Working hard, I see." An all too familiar voice shook Sarutobi of his reverie. A quick glance put his clone back to work while the original's eyes narrowed and, with the intensity brought on from more than fifty years of experience, he glared at the one who interrupted his work.

"Danzo." Hiruzen said, his tone none too friendly. His old friend turned rival turned enemy had been a thorn on his side for very long, and his inhuman practices had soured the two's relationship beyond even what their competition for the seat of Hokage had. "I'm afraid I don't have time for a friendly chat." He said, gesturing to the rather sizable 'in' pile.

"Oh, I assure you I'm here for business, Hiruzen." The taping of his cane heralded Danzo stepping foot into the Hokage's office, as opposed to just talking from outside. Of course the man could easily slip past the chunin guards standing in front of the door. The injuries on his body did not prevent him from using his sharp mind and considerable ability with genjutsu. "Business that involves a certain headache of yours."

The Hokage's eyes flickered between doubt and confusion for the briefest of instants, something that only an old bastard of a ninja would have caught. It was just luck that Danzo happened to be very old, for a ninja anyway, and quite a bastard (both figuratively and literally, as far as he knew). A thoughtful hum came from Sarutobi's throat. "I do not know how you could offer to help with the mountains of paperwork."

"Hilarious." Danzo spoke, though the sarcasm in his tone and lack of even a smile on his face spoke of how funny he'd found the comment. "You know what I am talking about, Hiruzen."

"I believe you should know my answer to the question you will ask, then." It would not be the first time that Danzo made such a request. It would almost certainly not be the last. Danzo did not intend to make his intentions secret, either. Keeping secrets like these from each other was truly pointless as they knew each other far too well to fall for such obvious deceit.

"Ah, but you do not know the question." Danzo remarked, cracking a wicked smile. "I wounds me that you think me so easily predictable, old friend."

No one grew to the age of fifty six without picking up one or two things along the way, presumably gaining some wisdom along the way as well. No one grew to the age of fifty six on their profession without being an unpredictable, cunning and crafty son of a bitch. There is no rest for the wicked, as they say, and the most any Shinobi but the greatest can expect from a retirement plan is dying in the field. "I do not have time for this." The Hokage said, his tone final.

"At the very least humor me with a minute, for old times' sake." Danzo countered, his smile growing. This had always been the difference between them. Whereas Hiruzen had been untouchable in the field, so powerful that he had even attained the title of the God of Shinobi, Danzo had always been far more at home within the shadows than the old monkey had been.

The realm of deceit, of lies and misdirection, that had always been what Danzo excelled at. Subterfuge was inarguably the greatest art a Shinobi could employ, and Danzo had always been Hiruzen's superior in this regard. So it came as no surprise when he found himself manipulating his ancient old friend through the use of the man's guilt. "No more, Danzo. I trust you will not bore me with repetitions and rehashes of earlier speeches."

Danzo's eyebrow twitched imperceptibly for anyone but the man who knew his scarred face better than any other. "Of course not." Danzo said, looking at the clone. "May I?" He asked.

The clone had moved to the side to continue with the Hokage's work while he dealt with perhaps his biggest headache during these trying times. "Your time is running, Danzo." Hiruzen informed, his voice level.

Danzo smiled again. It was not a nice smile. It was a hollow expression that was only a facsimile of the real thing, something that Hiruzen could easily recognize as Danzo's way of putting on a blank face while trying to resist the need to smirk. "I do not need a weapon, Hiruzen." The man said, his voice just as void of emotion as his smile. "There is no telling what disasters emotional conditioning could cause. I have no way of knowing how the circumstances that apply here would change the process. In the end, while the gains outweigh the risks, the risks are still too great a gamble at this stage of the game."

"It seems you still have some measure of common sense." Hiruzen noted, his emotions as restrained as his opposite's.

Neither ninja made a move, but anyone could have noticed the slightly deadpan expression on Danzo's face. "Of course. It comes with age, really." The man said, giving the verbal equivalent of a shrug. "An unreliable weapon is an useless weapon." He explained, this time allowing himself to smirk. "Some of us learned this lesson while others let their sentimentality get the better of them."

"You're still on about this, Danzo?" The Hokage snapped, his tone clearly one of long suffering. "Give it a rest, already. It was my first bo. Hashirama-sama made it explicitly for me and I was emotionally attached to it. I still replaced it when it became unserviceable, didn't I?"

"Bah." Danzo dismissed the digression with ease, not wishing to waste the head of the village's military time with reminiscing about times long gone. "Regardless, with this in mind, I can, without a shred of deceit or misdirection, tell you that I do not desire to obtain such a flawed weapon, no matter how potentially powerful it might be."

Perhaps it was the fact that Hiruzen knew better than simply blindly trusting a man unknown for being a schemer so good at his job that most people never figured out it had been his hand that put the pieces in motion, or perhaps it was the fact that Danzo had lied while making such statements before, but the God of Shinobi found himself disinclined to believe the truth of the old War Hawk's words. "Then, what is it that you wished to meet with me for, then?"

"I am an old man, Sarutobi. I will be hitting fifty six at the end of this month. I have fought, I have bled and I have killed for Konoha. I have planned, schemed, deceived, backstabbed and used countless people for the glory of Konoha. I have done everything in my power to make this village, my beloved home, the best it can be, and I have done it all with no intent of obtaining a reward. For me, seeing Konoha flourish and at the top is the reward itself." The man said, his tone slightly wistful. "But I will not be here forever. I will not be here to ensure that Konoha will remain at the top for the next fifty years. I will not be here to do what needs to be done, to plug the leaks and tie up the loose ends. I will not be here to be the far-reaching roots that support and provide nourishment to the great tree."

Danzo was good, Hiruzen remarked. Were he not used to dealing with the extreme patriot's usual speeches, he might have been affected by it. As it was, the old man had spoken too many times of his service to Konoha and its value. Perhaps, if Sarutobi did not indeed know of and value his service as it deserved to be, he might have felt awed to hear of Danzo's exploits. As it was, it was the basis of his respect for the man, perhaps the only lasting vestige of their friendship being the fact that it was mutual.

"I don't need a weapon, Hiruzen... I need an heir." Danzo summarized, his words almost enough to shock the old Hokage into cardiac arrest right then and there.

Danzo almost raised an incredulous eyebrow when the man before him let his surprise be shown. Was it that great of a shock? "Perhaps it might be rude, but... I must admit, I would have never expected you to say something such as this." The old monkey said, his tone of barely masked surprise. "I would have expected you to cling to the power you hold until your hands withered and you were physically incapable of doing so any longer. What happened that made you aware of your own mortality?"

The warhawk let himself show a self deprecating grin. "One of the Kyuubi's tails hit the ground two feet in front of me." He admitted rather shamelessly. "I have been afraid many times before, and I have felt weak each and every time." The man spoke. "But I had never experienced true terror. I had never felt just how truly weak I am, how truly brittle and ephemeral our existence is."

It was at this point that Danzo's eyes trailed to the window behind the Hokage, where the setting sun could be seen in the far off distance. It was a beautiful sight, although the red sky reminded some too much of the night that a beast so gigantic and powerful that it had painted the skies red with its mere presence.

"It was the most frightening experience in my life, yet at the same time, it is one I cherish greatly, for it opened my eyes and showed me how foolish I had been in my disposition. It finally made me understand Sensei's words. I was clinging too hard to life to realize that I was losing sight of my goal and purpose."

It was a strange sight, for any who would see it. Danzo had never been one to lose himself in thought, he had always been one of strong convictions and even stronger determination, although none had truly been aware of where his convictions pointed, and how far his determination would take him. The few who knew him well enough to make a guess, all three of them, were in a similar boat as he was.

"I find it ironic that I found the courage to face my own flaws in a moment of absolute terror." He finally admitted.

Hiruzen produced a match, a pipe and some tobacco. With deliberately slow and calculated motions, he carefully set about preparing his favorite form of relaxation, the one that was at fault for the slight rasp in his voice. "I see." He said, after taking the first lungful of smoke. "Perhaps I misjudged you when I thought you a lost cause, then."

It didn't take an expert in reading emotions to realize just how absolutely deadpan Danzo's face was. Considering he only had one eye and pretty much half his face covered by bandages, he was impressively expressive right then. "Why, thank you." His voice was equally obviously deadpan.

"You should refresh yourself on Sensei's teachings. Brush up your knowledge of his ideology. Maybe even look at what his philosophy entails. Who knows, you might even understand it this time." Sarutobi said, a smile tugging at his lips, changing his expression from that of the stern Hokage to one of an old friend giving a recommendation in decent books.

Danzo often times wondered when exactly it had been that he had started considering this man his friend again, and when it had been that he had stopped doing so before. It was not the time to ponder such thoughts, however, he would have plenty of free time for the moment, regardless, so he filed the thoughts away for the time being.

"You know, you're not the only one who will make a claim." The Hokage stated, his voice even.

"Of course." The man spoke. "No self-respecting clan head would pass such an asset." The man spoke, standing up from the chair that the clone had occupied earlier and adjusting his hakama, making sure that none of the still sore burns caused by close exposure to the demonic Kyuubi's chakra were irritated by friction. "I have no fear of this outcome, however."

Hiruzen closed his eyes and let out a puff of smoke. After a full twenty seconds of a tense silence, the Hokage finally opened his eyes again. "Of course you don't." The man finally said, his face carefully schooled into an unreadable stone mask. "You never have. The subtler arts have always been your forte, haven't they?"

"Indeed." The man said. "What can I say? The human mind has always been fascinating to me." He said, allowing himself a one-armed shrug. "Ah, I apologize for extending our chat past the alloted minute."

Hiruzen cracked a smile. "Something you have never managed to is faking sincerity in your half-assed apologies, Danzo. Perhaps you should have worked on that a little more. Might have avoided you trouble with Sensei."

"It would have helped." Danzo admitted.

"In two weeks, you will have my response." Hiruzen informed him, as Danzo prepared to leave. "In two weeks, I shall disclose my plans for his future to those whom I deem necessary to."

"I shall be looking forward to that date, then." With a final smirk, Danzo allowed himself to open the door and leave, uncaring of the perplexed, pathetic chunin that had never even seen him enter the Hokage's office in the first place. Then again, he assumed that they weren't truly there for security but convenience.

With much in his mind, the old War Hawk of Konoha calmly strode away from the lair of the strongest ninja in the Fire Nation, allowing himself to ponder if he truly, finally, understood the concept that had eluded him for so long.

The Will of Fire, huh?

Perhaps he would make more of an effort at understanding his sensei's teachings. The warmth that came from his old friend and rival when he had spoken about it... Perhaps it would be nice to feel it again. Might provide some youth to his old, aching and tired bones. He'd never truly comprehended it, never been truly aware of its purpose or meaning.

Perhaps... Perhaps he'd never had the courage to even make the attempt at understanding, or living up, to his Sensei's legacy.

It was this thought that produced a small smile on his face and made him find himself thanking the Kyuubi.

After all, if it hadn't scared him shitless, he might have ended up as a power-hungry old fart who would do more harm than good to Konoha, and that just wouldn't fly. Perhaps it was a bit unfair to all those who had lost so much to the Kyuubi, but he still found himself thanking the powerful creature for rekindling a bitter old man's fire, making it stronger than ever in the process.

Yes, he thanked the Kyuubi for finally giving him the necessary push to ignite his Will of Fire.


End file.
